Additional Secretary Election Commission of Pakistan Fida Muhammad has said that legislation of election laws is not the mandate of ECP and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's (PTI) statement in this regard will influence the commission.
Briefing the media on Tuesday, he said that PTI chief Imran Khan had accused the ECP of not taking appropriate steps for holding free and fair general elections, which was incorrect. He explained that the ECP has no mandate for legislation on electoral laws as it is the responsibility of the Parliament. "If the Parliament is not putting the legislation in place or is not discussing the electoral reforms then the ECP cannot do anything," he added.
He clarified that "he (Khan) is one of them who are supposed to bring legislation to electoral reforms. Khan's statement depicts a serious ignorance with regards to lawmaking process, which is lamented and strongly condemned."
The members of the Parliament are informed that the ECP received the first intimation from the National Assembly Secretariat on August 21, 2014, communicating the formation of Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms with the following terms of references (ToRs) for evaluating the shortcomings of previous elections and making recommendations for electoral reforms to ensure that elections are held in a free, fair and transparent manner; and drafting legislation or constitutional amendments, if required, and recommending ways and means to improve the system of elections, including adoption of the latest technology available for holding elections.
The commission is cognizant of its duties under the rules of business and has already constituted Legal Framework Committee (LFC) to conduct research and deliberate on electoral reforms.
He said this step of the ECP enabled it to provide first draft of electoral reforms to the parliamentary committee in August 2014. Besides the draft legislative proposals, the ECP also provided comparative statements of the existing and proposed legislation, modalities for introduction of electoral technology, proposals for out of country voting for expatriate Pakistanis and international best practices in respect of unified election laws, he added.
The additional secretary also said that the ECP has been attending every meeting of the committee and its sub-committee and has, so far, attended 20 meetings of the committee and 78 meetings of its sub-committee. The attendance of the commission comprises secretary, additional secretary, directors-general law, IT, admin and additional directors-general gender affairs & training, etc. The ECP has made all-out efforts to assist the said parliamentary committee(s) by not only providing written proposals, but also through briefings and presentations on each of the above area of legislation.
"Legislation is not the ECP's mandate as it is an exclusive mandate of the Parliament under the Constitution of Pakistan," he added.
He further stressed that the commission is aware of its constitutional responsibilities for which it is vigilantly striving to perform and deliver as per expectations of the nation and the guidelines given in the Inquiry Commission Report of the Supreme Court on General Elections-2013.
The ECP has also taken concrete steps towards fair, free and transparent elections and the steps taken up to December 2016 have been published in its publication namely "Road to General Election-2018," he pointed out.
The ECP has also devised a prudent HR policy, where all those having established roots in a single place of posting/station for years have been uprooted and transferred, he said, adding that exhaustive training programmes have been started after establishment of Federal Election Academy.
Moreover, monitoring, gender affairs and political finance wings have been raised to implement the guidelines of the Inquiry Commission Report.
He said that the commission will never be blackmailed by any vested interest for its ulterior motives and will always play on front foot without taking any pressure.
On Monday, PTI chief Imran Khan had indicated that his party might resort to street protests to compel the ECP to hold free and fair elections.